Isabelle Adjani recounts the legendary filming of La Reine Margot

Arte devotes its evening to Patrice Chéreau, by rebroadcasting this classic, then a documentary on his career.

Updated October 2, 2023: Patrice Chéreau, who died just ten years ago, will be in the spotlight this evening on Arte. First with the programming of one of his most famous films, Queen Margotthen via the broadcast of Patrice Chéreau, irresistibly alive, a documentary already available for free in replay on the channel’s website.

In 2014, Isabelle Adjani, the main actress, gave her anecdotes from filming to the French version of Vanity Fair. We share them again to wait until this beautiful movie evening.

Isabelle Adjani admits to having been traumatized for a long time by her role in Possession

Article from October 23, 2014: In the new issue of Vanity Faircurrently on newsstands with Isabelle Adjani in Reine Margot on the cover, the French star with five Césars returns at length to the masterpiece of Patrice Chéreautwenty years after its theatrical release.

Long before the success of Game Of Throneswell before the You sleep or others Borgiathere was already something rotten in the Kingdom (of Navarre in this case) which, under the pen of Danièle Thompson and in front of the camera more inspired and twirling than ever by the late Chéreau, found itself sublimated thanks to an outstanding cast where enthroned at the top a sublime Adjani, sensual, fragile and captivating incarnation of Queen Margot.

In the French monthly, Isabelle – who we recently saw on the poster of Under the girls’ skirts and who will soon return to the theater with Kinship – evokes his memories of this legendary shoot bathed in glimmers of scandal, sex, violence and power.

Thus, we first learn about the gestation of the project, Chéreau’s desire to film with an Adjani who was still undecided at the beginning of production and who was then devoting her life to her romance with Daniel Day-Lewis. We also discover that the latter, who had filmed the previous year The Last of the Mohicans with Chéreau-actor, was Chéreau-director’s first choice to play La Môle in Margot (role ultimately held by Vincent Perez), while Patrick Bruel (the French superstar of the time) was to play Henri de Navarre (role played by Daniel Auteuil).

By remembering this period, Isabelle Adjani lifts the veil on the making of one of the monuments of French cinema. The actress remembers the start of filming and the discovery of her costumes: “We were like butterflies. We moved, we flew. It was easy to put on and take off too! The corset revealed the breasts so that the bodies could fit together.” But she also remembers the joy of shooting in the atmosphere created by the brilliant cinematographer Philippe Rousselot : “There was a little army of lights surrounding us that was protective. I loved those moments.”

Further in the article, Isabelle opens up even more and talks about Chéreau, their almost conflictual relationship on the set: “Patrice was looking for an extreme mix of genres. Gentleness, exasperation, massacre, insane love. In each scene, two antagonistic elements are confronted. It was difficult, it put us in a state of short circuit. You always have to be in tune with him. He’s truly a conductor – not chamber music.”

Throughout the article, we also discover the “off” of this titanic filming, the effect that the venomous and very sexual Asia Argento had on the male cast, the actors who played the rooster to please their director as much as possible and overshadow the others, but also what was the first inspiration for Chéreau to shoot the scene of St. Barthélémy: the savage violence of Martin Scorsese In The Freedmenbefore Isabelle delivers a final confidence: “Ridley Scott asked me to play Joaquin Phoenix’s sister In Gladiator after seeing Queen Margot.”

The trailer for Queen Margotreleased in 1994:

Daniel Auteuil: “All the fights, it’s me; on horseback, it’s me; and the Hunchback, it’s me”